Land Art Research Paper

1999 Words4 Pages

To start off, land art is not as common as it is used to be; not many artists practice this type of art. It is not just any type of art; it is unique for what it can represent. Plus, land art is hard to come by, it is something that is mostly displayed through photographs rather than one visiting the place itself. Also, land art was most popular during the 70’s to 80’s era. Artists would travel around the world creating art; not by drawing them, but by carving out of or adding to the land. Architecture has many ways in which it can be represented, starting from its idea to its final design. However, it should always contemplate its surroundings. Landscape architecture should always work for the population. Open spaces should be created where …show more content…

Land art is not something that many accept as art, this is not for the reason of how it looks, but because of the artist. “Earth itself as medium, canvas and exhibition space” (troublemakers”). During the late 60’s and early 70’s there were a group of artist label “troublemakers” that went outside of their comfort zone to create something. In my opinion, these “troublemakers” took a risk, they went against everyone and broke the rules. Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, and Michael Heizer were “the lead members of this loose group”(Troublemakers). In addition, this group of land artists started a way to express their ideas in a disparate way. These artists decided to change the idea of the canvas, instead of sitting in a studio painting or drawing they decided to go out to the real world and express their ideas in a realistic way. They decided to make earth itself their canvas; putting together elements to create something. For example, the Spiral Jetty, or splitting buildings that are not considered iconic. All of those aspects connect land artists with architects; combining their work can create astonishing …show more content…

Spiral Jetty (picture 2) is Smithson’s most popular piece of land art. He arrived to this masterpiece by going outside his comfort zone; when he was young he travel around the country camping and hiking. When Smithson went back to his hometown at an early age his paintings were already at museums located in New York. The breakthrough of his career occurred when he went to visit his pediatrician, the bus ride allowed him to see the different aspects of landscape. Similarly, Michael Heizer is another land artist whose work has an idea of architecture within it. In my opinion, Heizer was someone who created extreme land art. Similar to Robert Smithson, Heizer liked to work with the landscape. He had an abundance of works that can be considered architecture. For example, Double Negative (picture 3) is one of the most interesting creations in a landscape. It was composed through dynamite and a bulldozer. A fascinating aspect about it is, as an architect student one can see two structures there. I imagine maybe two buildings with a space in the middle where one can put an open space. It can be office buildings and the positive space that is created in the middle, is where people would have their own

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